Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy

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Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy

Written by Emily Kawano

Nonprofit Quarterly

September 8, 2021

This article comes from the Summer 2021 edition of the Nonprofit Quarterly, “The World We Want: In Search of New Economic Paradigms.”

The discovery of imaginal cells, or discs, goes back to the 1600s, but the metaphor of imaginal cells was popularized by Norie Huddle in her 1990 book Butterfly. The story of a butterfly’s metamorphosis provides a lovely and useful metaphor for the metamorphosis from a system of capitalism to a postcapitalist system: the solidarity economy (SE).

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Cooperatives can make economies more resilient to crisis like COVID-19

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Cooperatives can make economies more resilient to crisis like COVID-19

By Katherine K. Chen and Victor Tan Chen

Fortune Magazine

May 19, 2021

With customers staying at home during the pandemic, large numbers of businesses have shuttered permanently, unable to cover their payroll and rent. Emergency governmental assistance has sustained some businesses during this period of economic uncertainty, but the crisis has also stoked interest in a private sector remedy: cooperatives.

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Local Food and Farms Coop Assembly 2021 Keynote Plenary Panel

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Local Food and Farms Coop Assembly 2021 Keynote Plenary Panel

Our opening Keynote panel at our Assembly features a conversation of food sovereignty and a Just Transition in our pandemic times with speakers from across the continent. We are honoured to open our 12th Annual Assembly with Dawn Morrison of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty from Coast Salish territory on the west coast of so-called Canada as well as Kali Akuno and Sacajawea Saki Hall of Cooperation Jackson from Jackson, Mississippi. Our speakers discuss what food sovereignty looks like in their communities, coalition building across nations and movements, and mobilizing to activate the changes we need to see for a Just Transition away from an extractive economy to sustainable, long-term, community-driven solutions.

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Defining Climate Justice + Labor Justice Webinar

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Defining Climate Justice + Labor Justice Webinar

This webinar is an introduction on labor organizing and how it interacts with many aspects of the environmental justice movement, such as how right-to-work legislation and other union busting efforts or hampering work affect the climate justice movement. Panelists also discussed the connections between the current labor organizers and mutual aid organizers in the youth environmental movement.

Featuring Joshua Dedmond of Cooperation Jackson and the Labor Network for Sustainability.


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The 2020 US Election: Bourgeois Democracy in Crisis

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The 2020 US Election: Bourgeois Democracy in Crisis

With Kali Akuno, Meagan Day, and Peter Drucker

The 2020 US election may be the biggest crisis of bourgeois democracy since the defeat of Black Reconstruction. The past several years and weeks have been rich in lessons about the nature of the US state and its electoral system. Issues that the panelists will discuss include: the ongoing far right threat and the changing character of the Republican Party; the nature of the Democratic Party and what the left can and cannot use it for; the roots of the current political crisis in the economic crisis going back to 2008, and the impact of the pandemic; and the intersections of class, race, gender and sexuality in this current crisis.

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This Ain't Democracy! A Post-Election Teach-In

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This Ain't Democracy! A Post-Election Teach-In

Regardless of the election outcome, the struggle for radical positive change is set to continue. We face ongoing battles for Black liberation, economic equity, reproductive freedoms, healthcare, immigrant justice, indigenous rights, ecological regeneration, and more.

The next four years – and far beyond – offer opportunities to build on the incredible groundwork established by movements from Black Lives Matter to #AbolishICE​, #MeToo​ to the fight to protect indigenous land and water.

In this post-election teach-in, we invite you to imagine and plot a revolutionary response to the U.S. Elections. Join Kali Akuno, Klee Benally, Shanelle Matthews, Adrienne Pine, and Marzena Zukowska as we demand much better than a return to the status quo!

Organized by PM Press, Radical Communicators Network, American University Department of Anthropology, and California Institute of Integral Studies Department of Anthropology and Social Change.

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Just Transition - Transformative Strategies on the Frontlines of Struggle

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Just Transition - Transformative Strategies on the Frontlines of Struggle

Organized and Hosted by the Labor Network for Sustainability

Held Wednesday, October 2, 2020

As we stand at the intersection of multiple, intertwined global crises—an environmental justice pandemic, the threat of fascism and white supremacy, and the crash of the fossil fuel economy, it’s hard not to feel despondent about the future of humanity.

However, communities that have historically been most impacted by these crises—Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples on the frontlines of poverty, pollution and police violence, are also cultivating visionary strategies for building a better world—pathways to restore the balance of natural ecosystems and human relations, and sharing these across frontline struggles worldwide.

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The Path to EcoSocialism and Survival

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The Path to EcoSocialism and Survival

A Talk and Interview with Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson with Systems Change Not Climate Change on Sunday, September 20

To survive, we must swiftly transition to ecosocialism. But how do we do that? Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson described the organization's model of local cooperative living, and its visionary Call to Action: Towards a General Strike to End the COVID-19 Crisis and Create a New World.

Kali discussed the pathway forward, using what the People’s Call to Action describes as "the greatest power we have at our disposal: our collective labor." Kali's presentation was followed by a Question and Answer period led by System Change Not Climate Change author/activist Carol Dansereau.

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Building a Transatlantic Strategy: What have we learnt from the last 5 years?

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Building a Transatlantic Strategy: What have we learnt from the last 5 years?

What have we learned on both sides of the Atlantic over the last 5 years about pursuing a socialist agenda using the vehicle of traditional political parties?

Taking a historical perspective, this session will examine the challenges and limitations of this approach and what we could have done differently. Asking the question of what would have happened had we achieved power, participants will map out a long view on socialist strategy and explore different avenues for delivering success.

SPEAKERS:

Joe Guinan

Mary Robertson

Kali Akuno

Richard Seymour

Laura Smith

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